French President Francois Hollande floated the prospect of scaling back sanctions on Russia, becoming the first major European Union leader to offer to ease the Kremlin’s economic pain.
“If gestures are sent by Russia as we expect, there would be no reason to impose new sanctions but on the contrary to look at how we could bring about a de-escalation from our side,” Hollande said as he headed into an EU summit in Brussels yesterday.
Hollande is the first major European Union leader to offer to ease the Kremlin’s economic pain as a wobbly truce in eastern Ukraine reduced casualties over the past week in the conflict that’s cracked Europe’s post-Cold War order.
The situation in eastern Ukraine remains tense in districts controlled by pro-Russian separatists, military spokesman Vladyslav Seleznyov told reporters today in Kiev. He said rebels shelled government troops nine times in the past 24 hours and have fired on Ukrainian forces 4,311 times since a Sept. 5 cease-fire and 128 times since a Dec. 9 truce, Yahoo informs.
